Riffs, Rants & Rumors: What's Burning In Our Kitchen

posted in: Features • Music News • Pop • Reviews & Playlists • Rock

You may be aware of the most-asked question encountered by those of us who write about music for a living. No, it’s not “Why, don’t you get a real job?” ” that one rolls in around number two at best. It’s “What have you been listening to lately?” by a landslide.

It’s a tough question to answer, as most days find us leaping neck-deep into a prodigious pile of new releases in an earnest-but-ultimately-futile effort to keep abreast of it all. We tend to process so much music through our creaky little crania that it’s almost impossible to keep tabs on it all. We can much more easily and accurately tell you what we’ve been listening to today, for instance, or at least what stood out among our sampling of sonic savories this particular week.

That’s exactly what we’ll do this time around, in the interest of keeping things honest. Here are a few of the most intriguing aural entities that have popped to the top of our playlist in the past seven days or so. Some aren’t even out yet, while others have already been kicking around for a few months; some are by new kids on the block and others are by familiar faces. They span the stylistic spectrum, and they’ve all been burning themselves into our short-term memory.

Barn Owl ” Lost in the Glare (Thrill Jockey)

This one will put hair on your chest”even if you’re a woman. It’s the sort of album that might have been described as psychedelic if it had been made 40 years ago, but today’s listeners will probably be more likely to label it simply “stoner.” And while neither description seems entirely inaccurate for these thick, visceral slabs of post-Neil Young fuzz-guitar minimalism, neither is 100 percent correct. There’s terror and beauty both to be found in these atmospheric environs, however you slice it up.

Black Swans ” Don’t Blame The Stars (Misra)

Singer-songwriter/main Swan Jerry DeCicca’s thoughtful, moody tunes may appeal to fans of indie-folk troubadours like Will Oldham and Matt Bauer, but his real touchstones are the first generation of Americana songpoets”Townes Van Zandt, Kris Kristofferson, Mickey Newbury and the like. Of course, the more soulful sonic touches employed this time around may have you wondering what would have happened if country-soul heroes like Larry Jon Wilson and Tony Joe White were still in their prime (or even still alive).

Mia Doi Todd ” Cosmic Ocean Ship (Virtual Label)

Todd began perfecting her airy-but-intense brand of acoustic-based impressionism well before the blogosphere started throwing terms like “freak-folk” around to describe many of her fellow travelers. But, as ever, she’s got one (or more) up on those hippie balladeers”a strong sense of artfully constructed songcraft. It doesn’t hurt either that Cosmic Ocean Ship occasionally detours into sort of neo-bossa nova territory, with Todd coming off like Joao and Astrud Gilberto fused together into one body, mind and soul.

Teen Daze ” A Silent Planet (Lefse)

A one-man-band record that seems to bring together the limpid textures of the neo-shoegaze movement with the ethereal electronics of the ambient universe, this is a six-track EP that plays like an album. By the time you’ve gotten from one end to the other, if you aren’t charmed, bewitched and a little bewildered, then your heart and ears have simply become too hardened to enjoy the sweet, simple pleasure of innocence glimpsed in its soft, sun-dappled slippage into the rear-view.

Julianna Barwick & Ikue Mori  ” Frkwys Vol. 6 (RVNG Intl.)

Speaking of ambient, here’s one for the mellow moodists among you. Julianna Barwick is on the up-and-coming side, while Ikue Mori has been around the block more than a few times. Both women have an outside-the-box idea of what modern music can be. Their duo installment in the Frkwys series of adventurous recordings combines Barwick’s electronically manipulated, wordless vocals with Mori’s, er, everything else, for a rainy-day record that sneaks up you, but stays put once it gets there.